One of my favorite Riverstone traditions is that our seniors schedule several “Senior Activities” throughout the school year as a way of celebrating their friendships while giving them the chance to blow off some steam as they await college acceptance letters, take semester finals, or prepare for IB trials week.

Here are some photos from their last activity: Go-Kart races!

Our Grade 11 students left Monday morning for their traditional, four day whirlwind tour of colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest. At each school, the students will meet privately with admissions reps and then tour the school. At Willamette University, the kids will also meet with a panel of Riverstone alumni. Bob Carignan, Assistant Head of School and College Counselor, reports in that things are going great, kids are asking excellent questions, and the reps continue to be wowed by our kids!

Schools on the tour include Whitman College, Seattle University, University of Puget Sound, Willamette University, Lewis & Clark, and Reed College. The tour is an important part of our college counseling program; by viewing a variety of schools, students learn how to evaluate potential colleges and also learn more about the college application process.

For a list of college acceptances for Riverstone graduates, visit www.riverstoneschool.org.

Chatting with the bus driver.

Load ‘em up!

And they’re off!

Catching fish at Pikes Place, between visiting Seattle University and University of Puget Sound.

Meeting with University of Puget Sound Admissions Representative.

Having the chance to spend time in a college classroom is an invaluable experience for students considering their college options, whether debating where to go to college or what they would like to study. This week, three of our seniors attended a Computer Science course taught by Visiting Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Byron Shock, at The College of Idaho. Here’s an excerpt of an email to Andrew Derry and Bob Carignan.

Dear Mr. Derry and Mr. Carignan,

It was a pleasure to have three of your students sit in on Computer Science II today at the College of Idaho. Josh H, Kyle S and Setsen T really participated in the lecture on the sorted list data structure. They seemed to get the hang of what we were doing right away and didn’t hold back on their input. It was a positive experience for me when one of the students jumped in with the answer to what needed to be done so we didn’t end up with an inaccessible object. Although I had touched on it earlier in the lecture, I was completely impressed by your students’ ability to get up to speed with a second-semester computer science topic in under an hour.

Thank you again for the chance to meet these great students.

Byron Shock, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics
College of Idaho